Good design hasn’t changed with AI — John Pham, SF Compute
Jul 21, 2025 · 20:25
John Pham of SF Compute argues that good design principles—speed, trust, accessibility, and delight—remain unchanged even with AI. He demonstrates these through SF Compute's onboarding, which loads in under 300ms using server-side rendering and a 14KB fog image animated with stacked transparent layers and no third-party JavaScript, respecting reduced motion preferences. Trust is built by setting clear expectations (e.g., '3 steps, under a minute'), auto-filling forms via browser autocomplete, and avoiding layout shifts. Delight comes from color psychology to slow users, peak-end bias (ending with a beautiful San Francisco scene), and the GPU habitat: a live video feed of GPUs implemented as stacked divs and a looping video, with a prediction cone that smooths nested menu interactions. Accessibility includes semantic HTML, screen reader testing, and pausing animations for reduced motion. These techniques turn users into super fans while growing total addressable market.
